So, I like the product overall. It works as advertised - it's super lightweight and you can start using it really quickly. There's humorous achievements you can unlock that keeps it light. I reckon this is useful and usable for people.

I like the product. It's fast. Very responsive. Elegant, intuitive interface.

The biggest piece of feedback I've got for Rob and team - I'd recommend you guys vigorously split-test the "above the fold" content that people see when they first hit the site. You've got a beautiful product, but that doesn't count for anything if people don't click through to use it.

A few things I'd test:

*Different font sizes and colors: Currently "Lightweight - Type it in and hit enter. It's that easy." is pretty small, it doesn't jump out at you. You might want to make it much larger.

*Images/screenshots: Your achievement right now is "Noob" - maybe something else would be sexier there?

*The biggest one I've got for you - try tweaking your Call-to-Action. "Sign Up Now - 30 Days Free"

I'm almost certain you could get a higher conversion rate. Perhaps "Take it for a spin"

Or "Get Started - be rolling with AgileTask in 7 Seconds"

If you A/B test your call to action, I reckon you'll be able to find one that gets people to try the product at a much higher rate.

"Sign Up Now" sounds like a big commitment and "30 Days Free" makes me focus on the paying aspect, and makes me wonder if I'll have to give a credit card to try.

So I'd recommend testing all of those elements and seeing what gets people trying it most often.

Beyond that, I like the idea - particularly if you could find a way to sync it with other services to automatically add/compile a list of tasks. I like the product overall, I think people will enjoy it - but play with the content that gets them to sign up. Testing is the way for that.

You, dear reader, can check out AgileTask at https://agiletask.me/ - actually, the sign-up is super easy. Don't need to confirm your email or put in a credit card or anything - you just type in your info and away you go. I think Rob and Co. could probably increase the rate people try it out by emphasizing how easy it is - feel free to go give it a spin and play with it some. It's a neat webapp and quite elegant to use.

Thanks for dropping a line, Rob - here's wishing you and your team much success.

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II. Hacker News is the best tech community on the internet, and patio11 - Patrick McKenzie - is the best contributor there. I don't even think that's controversial, I think it would be near universally agreed by the HN crowd that Patrick has made as many or more important contributions as anyone.

If you're from Hacker News, you know Patrick already. But for my readers that don't know him, let me give you a quick overview.

III. Patrick is a multi-faceted genius, and I don't throw the word genius around casually.

Patrick McKenzie is many things - he's an expatriate to Japan, he's a talented coder, tester, metrics/split-testing/analytics user, a great writer, extremely modest and helpful. He can recruit people, evaluate talent, and manage people well. He understands ROI very well and is good at purchasing advertising. He's good at customer service. Outsourcing. Automation. Coding. Ecommerce.

I have this little analogy that i like to tell people who are interested in starting a business.

Think of your business as a restaurant. What you're telling me is that you want to take a piece of land at what you consider to be a good location, and build a restaurant.

I say, instead of building the restaurant, cook the food first, and let people eat it. And if they like the food, then build the restaurant.

What I mean in practical terms is, test the market before you do anything else. Especially with the internet, it's especially easy now to test the market. Here are some examples:

A client wants to buy a house to rent it out, but he's not sure if he'll be able to rent it. I say, put an ad up on CraigsList (or similar) as if you already have the house for rent, and see how many interested parties you get. Then use that to gauge whether or not to buy the house. You've spent just minutes of your time testing the market (see my related musings about the 80/20 rule below).

I have this little analogy that i like to tell people who are interested in starting a business.
Think of your business as a restaurant. What you're telling me is that you want to take a piece of land at what you consider to be a good location, and build a restaurant.
I say, instead of building the restaurant, cook the food first, and let people eat it. And if they like the food, then build the restaurant.
What I mean in practical terms is, test the market before you do anything else. Especially with the internet, it's especially easy now to test the market. Here are some examples:
A client wants to buy a house to rent it out, but he's not sure if he'll be able to rent it. I say, put an ad up on CraigsList (or similar) as if you already have the house for rent, and see how many interested parties you get. Then use that to gauge whether or not to buy the house. You've spent just minutes of your time testing the market (see my related musings about the 80/20 rule below).
You want to build the next cool gizmo. I say, put a website up showing pictures of the gizmo and have an order form, then try marketing it to the people you think will want it, and try to get some pre-orders on the product.
So test, test, test, and don't be afraid to tell everyone who will listen about your idea. Don't guard your idea because you're afraid that someone will copy it. You ar so much better off getting feedback from anyone who will listen, because guaranteed, it will be many times better than if you try to figure the market out by yourself. You might end up with 100% of the product/idea if you do it all yourself, but 100% of zero isn't much.